AUC Students Win Public Inspiration Award in International SensUS Competition

A group of AUC students won the Public Inspiration Award at the SensUS 2018 Competition recently held at the Technology University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The AUC students were the only team from Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa to be selected for participation, competing against 12 top technology universities worldwide. 

The SensUS is an annual competition during which students teams develop biosensors to measure biomarkers of diseases or therapeutic drug monitoring. This year, participants were challenged to determine the right dose of vancomycin, a potent antibiotic, in 24 human plasma samples. Each team made three different oral presentations, presented a poster and submitted a complete business plan on the developed biosensor. AUC's team completed this task by using their combined knowledge of chemistry, biotechnology, analytics and more to address this real-world global health problem. 

"I am very impressed with the technical and soft skills of our students, who represent several departments," said Hassan Azzazy, coordinator of the biosensor grant and mentor of the AUC SensUS team, highlighting how such competitions exemplify the high-quality education students receive at AUC.  

Azzazy, who is also a professor and the chair of the Department of Chemistry, assembled and mentored the team for an entire year.

The AUC team was made up of Asser Hangal, computer science; Marie Tanious, chemistry; Manar El-Nagar, nanotechnology; Mohamed Saeed, mechanical engineering; Nabil Mikhael, electronics and communications engineering; Namir Elkhouly, mechanical engineering; and Omar Elsayyad, chemistry. 

The competition is funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). The AUC Team received funding from the EIT and the Technology University of Eindhoven.